From the SI Vault

A great article from Sports Illustrated, March 09, 1981 (Volume 54, Issue 11) (click link for full article):

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Animal House Goes To Sea
This year's SORC winners are the guys from the Crude, whose antics are rude
by Coles Phinizy

"There was a time long ago when the object of the Southern Ocean Racing Conference was simple: It was an excuse for salty chums to gather and try to win trophies and drink each other under the table. Today the quest is more complex. The six-race series is now the proving ground on which boats rating between 30 and 39.9 feet try for berths on the U.S. team that will compete in Great Britain's Admiral's Cup series in August. It's also the place where skippers of craft great and small especially love to beat Dennis Conner, the hyperserious super-sailor from San Diego who has won fleet honors in three of the last six SORCs.

At the end of the series last week the men of Louisiana Crude, a rated 32.6-footer out of New Orleans, hadn't won a single race, but in the process of cultivating cirrhosis of the liver they did win the overall fleet title and selection to the Admiral's Cup team—and they beat Conner to boot. But because of serious illnesses in their families, Dick Jennings of Chicago and Tom Dreyfus of New Orleans, co-owners of Louisiana Crude, declined the Admiral's Cup berth and sold their boat, a setback softened for Dreyfus, who reckoned it was better to have crewed on Crude and beaten Conner than never to have sailed at all."